The Meaning of Life

Chapter 3

Alice's P.O.V.

"How are we even supposed to find the meaning of life? It's a philosophical topic, there is no 'one' meaning of life." I said.

"We're not looking for a meaning of life. We're looking for the meaning of life."

"It's based off interpretation, not everyone will agree with the meaning we find."

"I know, Alice, there is a lot of interpretations. But you know what?"

"What?"

"All of them are connected."

"Really." I hoped my face was showing the disappointment in Ashe, he really wasn't making me feel confident in our plan. In fact, our plan wasn't even a real plan. Find the meaning of life, write an essay on the meaning of life, share it to the world. Like that would work.

"Yes, really! You see, the meaning of life that other people believe, that we live to die, is connected to that one from long ago, we live to spread joy. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because they're both about what we live for."

"That sounds a bit stretched." I said, "Every meaning of life is about what we spend our lives for."

"That's why they're connected!"

"You know what, I'm just not going to argue with you. I just don't understand what you're going at."

"And I thought you were different..." He mumbled. I decided to ignore that.

"We shouldn't fight, it won't help us at all."

"You're right, let's put our differences behind us and try to get along."

"You make it sound like we're arguing on purpose."

"Maybe we are."

"Anyway, back to the topic. How are we supposed to find the meaning of life? It's not just going to be lying on a stone in the middle of the smallest lake on the tallest mountain."

"You never know." He looked up to the sky, "You see those clouds." 

"Yes." I looked up as well.

"Soon they'll turn into rain."

"They won't turn into rain, they'll go through a phase change."

"Yeah, yeah that's what I mean." 

"Your point being...?"

"My point being that we rely on the earth."

"...I think I already knew that."

"I didn't finish! We rely on the earth. Without the earth we'd be no where. You know those people planning to scout Mars for future homes? We would never have to do that if we realized how much we need the earth."

"You're right, we do need the earth. But if we never move outward-"

"We don't move outward! We don't own everything! We take and take and take! We never give back! If we move outward and the earth destroys itself, all we'll do on other planets is destroy them!"

"Then do you agree that we should all die?"

"No."

"Then if we don't move out we'll all die."

"No we won't."

"And why is that?"

"Because we don't have to kill the earth. We can stop people from ruining it."

"Not all people are ruining it. Some people are like us and want things to change."

He was silent for a long while. I was partly grateful for that, it gave me time to think. Why is he so against believing in other people? I don't think he really hates other people, maybe he's just misguided. To find the meaning of life, everyone needs to help. But there's no way everyone is just going to give up what they've believed in their entire life, just because two kids say that they will help them see the truth. That's entirely false, maybe it would happen in another dimension, but not here. We would need only each other to find the meaning of life.

I looked at Ashe, he was still staring at the sky. I nudged his shoulder until he looked at me. I smiled at him, "We've still got each other. That mean's we've still got hope."

He smiled back, "You're right. As long as we have hope, we can find the meaning of life."